Forgive Me, She Said
by TheCivilState
Summary: Dopplegangers were always choosing the younger brother.  Not this time.


"I'm sorry." Elijah, slightly more ashen looking than usual, rolled onto his side until his body was propped against the wall. Elena sat a few feet away on the stairs with that damned dagger in her hands. He needed to destroy it. Or people just needed to stop stabbing him with it.

"How did I get here?" he asked, looking around a noticing this was not some godforsaken cave in the forest outside Mystic Falls, but was, in fact, the foyer of Elena's home.

"Matt," she said, "he wasn't really thrilled with the idea of helping move your body, but he was the only one I could trust to help me."

"Trust," he scoffed, "what a novel concept." Her eyes watered and from where he sat, he could see her dark lashes glimmer with the dampness. Those eyes. Those damned Petrova eyes. Those eyes were always causing trouble. They could tear down a castle and destroy a king without any effort.

"I'm sorry," she said again.

"I'm afraid that's not enough this time, Elena." She bit back a sob and he watched stoically as she tried to compose herself. The dagger cut into her palm as her grip tightened around it, but he made no move to heal her. _Let her bleed, _he thought. It was the least she deserved after her betrayal.

"I needed Klaus gone," she said, "gone for good. I need him out of my life if there's even a chance at me having a normal one." He stood and adjusted his suit, thankful that this time it was still intact and not irreparably damaged.

"I'm afraid you will never have a normal life. Even if Klaus had never found you, even if the Salvatore brothers had left you alone, even if-" He was going to mention himself, mention the times he had saved her life and put it at risk, but he didn't. If she could so easily betray him, he must have not made the impression he thought he had.

"It's the curse of the doppleganger," he said, "even before Tatia had the misfortune of meeting my family, her life was by no means normal. A lack of normalcy and the curse of indecision. Even if the supernatural community leaves you alone, the doppleganger must deal with those curses." Elena dashed away her tears and handed the dagger to him. He took it and tucked it away inside his jacket with every intention of never letting it out of his sight again. How the Salvatores managed to find it and use it against him was headache enough.

"I really am sorry," she said again, as if repetition would make the statement truer and more effective.

"There is one merit to your character," he said, "something that sets you apart from your predecessors." Elena's eyes brightened at the prospective of being distinguishable from Tatia and Katherine- two women whose shared resemblance had caused innumerable problems. Problems that Elena, as their descendant, was being forced to deal with.

"You apologize," he said, "that is something Tatia and Katerina would never have done. It wasn't in them to ask for forgiveness."

"I can understand why if no one was willing to forgive them." The time it took Elijah to invade her personal space and press her back into the hard edges of the staircase was a period of time not measurable by modern inventions. Elena hadn't even had time to blink before she found herself nose-to-nose with an Original who had been dead for the umpteenth time a few minutes ago. She closed her eyes because if he was going to kill her, she didn't want to see it coming.

"I forgave them until there was nothing left in me to forgive with," he spat before withdrawing. She let out the breath she didn't know she had been holding and stayed laying on the staircase as the ceiling being fascinating.

"I'm sorry." This time when she said it, even she thought she was beginning to sound like a broken record.

"You can apologize for eternity, Elena, it won't change anything."

"I'm sorry." At his growl, she pushed herself up and watched as he clenched his teeth and retained his composure. She wondered what he was like when he just let go.

"What do you want me to say?" he asked, "that I forgive you? That I understand why you did it? Because I do, Elena, I do understand. I understand that you would do anything to protect those you care about and it's because I understand that I am able to forgive you. But do not ask me to trust you because I cannot. I cannot."

She stood slowly and walked towards him. The prey approaching the predator and she wondered when exactly she started thinking like that. Most people didn't live with the knowledge of human looking beings that could kill you without exerting any effort. Most people didn't have to deal with witches and vampires and hybrids and werewolves and murderous mothers who want their children dead. Most people didn't have to endure being compared to lookalikes who were nothing like you. Most people. But as Elena Gilbert knew, she was not most people.

"How can I earn your trust?" she asked and Elijah wanted to scream in frustration. Third time's the charm, that's how the saying went. So by now he should know what to expect from a doppleganger. Tatia and Katerina weren't so different. He should have known what to expect when Katerina from Bulgaria began to smile at him and kiss his brother. He should've known. Third time's the charm. By now things should be predictable. Elena should be predictable. And yet she wasn't. Because Tatia and Katerina had never asked for his trust, let alone how to earn it. But she did, Elena did, and it was infuriating.

"Come with me," he said without thinking, "Just for a week. I'll tell you how Kol ended up being daggered in 1912 and how Tatia's son had her eyes. I'll tell you anything you want to know, just come with me."

It was a desperate plea of a desperate man holding out a desperate hand in the hopes things would change. That this time, things wouldn't be predictable and that they wouldn't end badly and if they did end badly, at least they wouldn't end terribly. It was a request made by a cynical man who logically knew that the dopplegangers were cursed with indecision and a lack of normalcy and eventually they would turn their compassion off as well. And that knowledge alone was enough to drive him mad at the thought of Elena losing her compassion, something that was so uniquely her it was no doubt ingrained in her DNA. And yet she was a doppleganger with those doppleganger eyes that ruined kings and kingdoms without effort, the same way he ripped hearts from chests and he wondered if she would let him have her heart.

She took his hand.

Third time's the charm.

**a/n: **Do I really have to keep writing disclaimers? This is Fanfiction. Pretty damn obvious I don't own anything from the show.

Fave, flame, faint.

oxox


End file.
